Weather plays havoc with hockey Redmen as team heads to Maritimes
MONTREAL - A severe winter storm that has grounded flights across Eastern Canada, has forced the cancellation of a men's hockey game between the McGill Redmen and the St. Francis Xavier X-men.
McGill, the No.3-ranked team in the nation, postponed their scheduled departure from Monday to Tuesday to make a 14-hour bus ride to Antigonish, N.S., located about two and a half hours northeast of Halifax.
A two-game series against the X-Men for the Keating Cup, slated for Dec. 28-29, has been reduced to a single contest on Wednesday (Dec. 29). The next day, McGill is scheduled to make a five-hour trip to Fredericton, to play the No. 2-ranked UNB Varsity Reds.
The game at St.FX will be webcast on SSN (www.ssncanada.ca) and is set for 6 p.m. (Eastern) at the St.FX Keating Millennium Centre. Live stats will also be available on the McGill website. The Redmen are 1-0 lifetime against St. FX, having won 7-5 in their only previous meeting on Jan. 6, 1988.
It will mark the first game in more than three weeks for the Redmen who haven't played since Dec. 4. Under the guidance of new head coach Kelly Nobes, McGill has posted an impressive 21-0-2 overall record against CIS opponents.
The X-Men have won all four previous Keating Cup titles and this year they will enter the event with a 12-10-1 record overall. Among their conquests is a 4-2 preseason win over UQTR and a pair of wins over Saint Mary's. The Redmen are 1-0 lifetime against St. FX, having won 7-5 in their only previous meeting on Jan. 6, 1988.
Thursday's much-anticipated matchup with UNB (19-4-0) will be played at the Aitken Centre (7 pm) and is the first meeting between these high-profile teams since McGill dropped a pair of exhibition games (7-6 and 5-1) on Sept. 25-26, 2009. UNB is 6-1 lifetime against McGill and the two teams are favourites to cross paths at the CIS University Cup championship in Fredericton next March.
In OUA regular-season play, the Redmen are 16-0-2 with both losses occurring in overtime shootouts against Brock and UQTR. McGill will enter the second semester just five wins shy of a single-season school record for victories. They lead the nation in offence with an average of 5.72 goals per game and rank second in defence, allowing 2.33 goals against.
Offensively, the team is led by linemates Francis Verreault-Paul (26-13-39) and Alex Picard-Hooper (6-32-38), who rank 1-2 among CIS scoring leaders. Verreault-Paul, an All-Canadian who was the OUA player of the year in 2009-10, has already surpassed his goal total of last season (25) and is on pace to challenge the OUA (35) and CIS (40) single-season records.
On the blueline, McGill is led by All-Canadian Marc-Andre Dorion, who was named the CIS most outstanding defenceman last season when he led all CIS rearguards in scoring. He was subsequently invited to the Toronto Maple Leafs prospects and rookie camps this past fall and currently tops all blueliners again this season with a 7-25-32 record in 18 games.
The game at UNB will feature McGill grad Steven Pearce, who played defence for the Redmen from 2004 to 2008 and may get the opportunity to play against his former team. Pearce is currently a third-year law student at UNB, where he is also an assistant coach. He has dressed for three UNB games this season due to a number of injuries along the V-Reds blueline. He would be following in the footsteps of fellow McGill alum Lucas Madill, who went on to play one year for UNB and then was an assistant coach before Pearce took over his role behind the bench. Herb Madill, father of Lucas, also played for both UNB and McGill, then coached the Redmen from 1973 to 1979. Herb was recently named to the UNB Hockey All-Decade team from the 1960s.
The Keating Cup began in 2006 and was named in honor of the late Charles V. Keating, alumnus and longtime friend of StFX University and strong supporter of StFX Athletics and the X-Men hockey program. Keating passed away in November, 2005 and left a lasting legacy at StFX University, including the building in his name where the X-Men currently play all their home games.
The Redmen will resume OUA regular season play, Jan. 8-9, when they play at Ottawa and Concordia, respectively.
SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
McGill Athletics & Recreation
514-398-7012